ADVENTHEALTH ROCKY MOUNTAIN/CENTURA Andrew Shaw
Re-igniting Faith, Forming Connections and Finding Purpose within the AdventHealth University nursing program
“I
f I had followed my timeline and not God’s… I wouldn’t be here,” said Savanah Watson, AdventHealth University Denver nursing student. “As cliché as it may sound, you need to let go and let God.” Since 2009, Centura has partnered with AHU Denver, located on the CenturaPorter Adventist Hospital campus, to provide the next generation of caregivers with the tools they need to compassionately care for the whole health of their future patients—mind, body and spirit. Centura Health holds faith as a sacred foundation and believes in spreading inspiration through behaviors and actions. Savanah Watson and Albreny Chavez are nursing
and wanting to help other families like the nurses who helped save my little brother,” said Watson. As Watson works toward Care with Pastor Seth Day. her goal of becoming a The class touched on the NICU nurse, she also wants healing ministry of God and to obtain her graduate how to incorporate that into degree and would love to our everyday care. At that come back to AHU Denver time in my life, I was very lost as a nurse educator. Chavez and wanted to find guidance. has set her sights on becomThe school brought my faith ing a nurse practitioner with back to light and gave me the hopes of guiding other hope,” said Chavez. nurses along the way. The To further cement their collective goal to mentor faith, Chavez was bapcomes from the same mentized into the Seventh-day torship and support they’ve Adventist Church in July received in their classes and 2021, which followed during their clinical rotaWatson’s baptism in tions in Centura’s hospitals. November 2020—marking “The staff was so welcomthe first two baptisms in the ing and supportive, always history of AHU Denver. willing to pull us in and hold Throughout high school, our hands through every Chavez learned how to help experience,” said Watson. her mom work through many As they fondly recall their health issues, including strug- time spent with Centura caregling with diabetes. Later in givers, they attribute their life, her then-boyfriend had positive experience to the brain surgery, and Chavez attentive, hands-on training was there to help with his they received while on-site. post-operative care. “At Centura-Avista “That’s where I found Adventist Hospital, the my passion for wanting to clinical instructor would start become a nurse. I want to every clinical rotation with a help other people and have prayer and ended with one as a healing ministry within well. It was so grounding and myself,” said Chavez. really helped you get into the For Watson, her call to right mindset to care for your nursing was solidified when patients,” said Chavez. her little brother, now 16 Thanks to their decision to years old, was born with a “let go and let God,” Chavez double nuchal cord, which and Watson’s unique paths occurs when the umbilihave led them to one another cal cord wraps around the and to AHU Denver where baby’s neck twice. After they are able to re-ignite their almost dying during birth, faith, form connections and he recovered in the neonatal find purpose. intensive care unit—a floor Brianna DiPilato is a writer for that Watson strives to work Centura Health. on someday. “I have a passion for people, human science
Albreny Chavez and Savanah Watson
students at AHU Denver. As they work through the nursing program and their clinical rotations in Centura hospitals, not only have they acquired the skills needed to become future nurses, but they have found reasons to re-ignite their faith and live out their true purpose. As first-generation college students, the road to finding their way after obtaining their Associate of Science degrees was bumpy. With help and support from the AHU staff, coupled with a passion to give back to others and a calling to get closer to God, Watson and Chavez pursued the AHU Denver nursing program. “Coming to AHU, one of the classes we had to take was the Philosophy of Health
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